Saturday, December 12, 2009

German wheat

There are several variants of Erdinger wheat beer available in Norway. Some supermarkets sell Erdinger Champ, while Erdinger Weissbier and Erdinger Schneeweisse is available at the state owned wine and spirits outlet, Vinmonopolet. I wanted to try some of the Erdinger beers at home and ended up buying two 0.33 litre bottles of Champ and a half litre bottle of Weissbier.

I started with Champ. It has a cloudy look. In the glass it comes with a small head that dissolvess quickly. There is nearly nothing to be felt in the nose - only a hint of yeast. In the mouth the beer is boring and feels thinbodied and watery. The yeasty notes are there together with hints of banana and malt, and the banana stays through the aftertaste. All in all this is an uninteresting beer. "Mild und pur" says the label. I can agree on the mild part. This beer is so mild that it is more or less bland.

The weissbier is as cloudy as Champ, but it looks a little more amber. The head is higher, and it also stays for a longer time than Champ's. The nose is more or less the same. There is some yeast, but that is all. The weissbier has a fuller body than Champ, but it is still quite thinbodied. There is a bready taste to it with notes of bananas. The beer is more interesting than Champ, but I feel that it is quite unremarkable.

I have been drinking some other wheat beers this year, and they were much more interesting than Erdinger Champ and Erdinger weissbier. The Czech Primator weizen comes immediately to mind, but also the Paulaner weissbier. I guess I will avoid these Erdinger beers in the future, but I am willing to give the weissbier a chance as a draught beer.